Anthony Santos (born July 21, 1981),[1] known professionally as Romeo Santos, is an American[2] singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, featured composer and former lead singer of the Bachata group Aventura. He became The King of Bachata, and while he was with Aventura, they were known as The Kings of Bachata. As a member of Aventura, Santos has been a key figure in popularizing Bachata, with hits reaching near the top of the Billboard Latin charts and the top of charts in Europe. In 2002, the band's song "Obsesión" was number one in Italy for sixteen consecutive weeks.[3] After releasing several albums with Aventura, the group went its separate ways. Since then, Romeo has embarked on a solo career which in three years has spawned seven number one songs on the Hot Latin Songs chart and eight number ones on the Tropical Songs chart.

Santos was born on July 21, 1981, in The Bronx, New York City, to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother.[4] He had a humble upbringing, with his father working construction and his mother staying at home to take care of the family. He joined his church’s choir at age 12. At the same time, he developed a great passion for bachata music (a typical Dominican style with great draw among the working class), long before it became popular around the world, when he was 15.

Before the success of Aventura, Santos founded a group called “Los Tinellers” ("The Teenagers" written phonetically in a Dominican pronunciation), with his cousin Henry and two friends in the early 1990s. The group released an album called Trampa De Amor, and by the end of the decade, they changed the name of the band to Aventura.[citation needed]

The group, for which Romeo was the main songwriter and producer, released 5 studio albums in a decade, spawning many top 10 hits like "Un Beso", “Los Infieles”, “El Perdedor”, “Por Un Segundo”, “Dile Al Amor” and probably their most popular song, “Obsesión”.

In April 2011, after his success as a songwriter and the lead singer for Aventura, Romeo announced he was leaving the band to pursue a solo career. On May 9, he released the first single off his debut album Formula, Vol. 1, called “You”.[5] The song went #1 on the Hot Latin Songs and Tropical Songs charts.[6] The second single “Promise”, featured a collaboration with R&B singer Usher.[7] As with the previous single, “Promise” topped the Hot Latin Songs and Tropical Songs charts.[8]

In 2013, Formula, Vol. 1 received a Grammy nomination for Best Tropical Latin Album.

In 2014, he conquered another New York landmark, Yankee Stadium, selling out an entire double-header show.[9] Those concerts made history for Santos, becoming the first Latin artist to headline at the Stadium. The Fania All-Stars last did so, one block south at the old Yankee Stadium on August 24, 1973.

Santos was one of the most frequently played artists on jukeboxes across New York City neighborhoods, second only to The Rolling Stones. The analysis, by digital jukebox company TouchTunes and the Wall Street Journal, covered listening patterns in from March 2014 to February 2015.[12]

^The songs of Romeo Santos appeared in two Mexican charts: Monitor Latino & Billboard Mexican Airplay. For Monitor Latino the references are named with the title of each song, and for the Billboard chart the link is the last: